The United States has 2.4 million people behind bars. Thousand Kites wants you to lend your support to a powerful grassroots radio and community project that reaches into our nation's prisons and lets those inside know they are not forgotten. Sing a song, read a prayer, speak from the heart and let those inside know you are thinking about them. Call in a holiday wish now at 877-410-4863 to our toll-free 24/7 answering machine.
We would like to offer your station the 12th annual Calls from Home, a special edited program that brings the voices of families across the nation to the airwaves as they send greetings directly to their incarcerated loved ones.
Download Calls from Home. (One-minute sound bed at 26:00. Total length 59:00.)
Listen to this year's program:
Your station can participate by:
1) Broadcasting the one-hour edited special (to be released December 5th). Sign up here and we will send you an email with PSAs and other helpful tool.
2) Inviting your listeners to help build the special by calling our dedicated story-line; including poets and artists.
PSA Text:
Thousand Kites and this radio station invites you to participate in a special holiday radio program for prisoners -- Calls from Home.
Send a message of hope and encouragement to those behind bars in our nation’s prisons. Read a short poem, sing a song or send a blessing. Speak from your heart to the over 2 million people behind bars this holiday season.
Your messages will be broadcast on radio stations around the country sending radio waves of hope through prison walls.
Call in your message toll free number at (877) 410-4863, that's (877) 410-4863 or check out – callsfromhome.org for more information.
3) Hosting a panel discussion about communication rights for prisoners and their families.
Download a worksheet on "Communication as a Human Right."
If you need information about this broadcast contact us via email.
Want to help get Calls From Home heard all over the country?
- Spread the word in your community with our poster.
- Tweet this: Send a message to those inside our nation's prisons this holiday through a powerful radio program. http://bit.ly/vYFbG5
- Spark a dialogue in your community with the support of our facilation guide and with a short sample from the program.
- Blog about CALLS FROM HOME. Embed the audio, banners, and text from this page. Write a short commentary.
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Poets & Spoken Word Artists
We are calling on our poet, writer and creative friends to submit a work to Thousand Kites for our national radio broadcast Calls from Home. Call you poem into our 24/7 answering machine today. Don't worry if you mess up, we edit all the calls. Toll-free at (877) 410-4863 or upload your song directly to our website.
Cold Steel
Ode to Cook County Jail
Twelve years ago when prisoners in our region’s newly opened Supermax facilities wrote us about human rights abuses and racism, we responded as artists with a national media arts project. Soon we witnessed the effect our effort had on our region’s prisons. One of the first poems that came back to us from Wallens Ridge State prison was a gripping poem called "Grave Prison Yard." We responded by creating a public performance.
Grave Prison Yard
We are asking you to submit a work on the themes of incarceration, family, the power to endure and anything that would lift the spirits and spark creativity in our thousands of prisoner listeners. Speak from the heart.
You can submit your poem, or read a prisoners poem if you have permission, by calling it into our toll-free line and recording it on our answering machine at toll-free at (877) 410-4863.
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